Red Hair, Black Soul (Red & Black #1)

29 | Touché

Complement #38

Said to: Dad

Your beard makes you look like Chuck Norris. I like Chuck Norris.

***

"I think the Great Gatsby is an example of a book that was started without any plan of how it was going to end."

Everyone in the classroom stares at me and I pretend I don't see. These are the first words I uttered in the World Literature classes since the discussion of Pride and Prejudice almost two moths ago. I know this moment verges on a breakthrough but I act unmoved and stare straight ahead at Mrs. Scottinson.

"No one ends a book this way if they have everything planned out to the letter." I finish calmly. 

"You mean you disagree with Gatsby's death?" Mrs. Scottinson prods, placing her pointing finger across her lips.

"Of course I do." I scoff. "He didn't need to die. This could have been solved otherwise. I mean, a bullet to the heart by some desperate widower persuaded by an almost-widower? Rom-coms end like that. Argentinean soap operas end like that. Leading books of American classic don't end like that."

Mrs. Scottinson slides her finger over her lips and sweeps the classroom with a gaze. "Does anyone want to comment on what Ada said?"

"Actually, yes." The whole length of my spine stiffens when I hear those two words. Of course he'd like to comment. Of course there's something he wants to say.

"Without Gatsby's death, the book would be pointless." Jed starts, sounding convinced. "Shallow. How do you imagine it with Daisy divorcing Mr. Buchanan and running off to live with him, ignoring the consequences of killing Myrtle?"

"I never said she should have divorced her husband and remarry." I reply calmly without turning around. "I said that he shouldn't have died, or at least not in the way he did."

"Then how would you like him to die?"

"Certainly not shoot for a crime he didn't commit protecting a woman who couldn't care less." I mutter.

There's a short pause as Jed's chair scrapes across the floor. No one dares cross us, knowing the discussion is reserved for just me and Jed. It's a shame, though. 

I'd like to hear someone else speak.

"He died protecting the woman he loved." Jed's soft voice sounds closer now. I bet he had moved his whole desk and is now breathing right down my neck. He probably thinks his proximity is going to do things to me. But he's wrong.

Since the day he kissed me, I toughened enough to teach my body how not to react.

"She might or might have not cared about him, but he never stopped caring for her."

A sudden thud hits the bottom of my chair and I slide my chair forward, trying to escape the range of his long legs.

"Then he was foolish." I say. "Pointless love is idiotic. This relationship was doomed from the start."

"It was pointless because she messed it up."

That's the spark I needed to spring into action. I turn in my seat, my brows flying up my forehead.

"She messed it up?"

"Yes." Jed nods, his whiskey brown eyes locking with mine. "The problem would have never been there if she hadn't married Mr. Buchanan."

"She thought she was never going to see him again. She was just trying to protect her heart from breaking by giving it to someone else."

"Oh, here we go again with the protection bullshit." Jed snaps.